On the 20th of last June, I arrived, said he, from the
West Indies, in company with Captain Watson. I commanded
the ship in which he came as a passenger, his own
ship being taken and confiscated by the English. We had
long lived in habits of strict friendship, and I loved him for
his own sake, as well as because he had married my sister.
We landed in the morning, and went to dine with Mr.
Keysler, since dead, but who then lived in Water-street.
He was extremely anxious to visit his family, and having a
few commissions to perform in the city, which would not
demand more than a couple of hours, he determined to set
out next morning in the stage. Meanwhile, I had engagements
which required me to repair with the utmost expedition
to New York. I was scarcely less anxious than my
brother to reach Baltimore, where my friends also reside,
but there was an absolute necessity of going eastward. I
expected, however, to return hither in three days, and then
to follow Watson home. Shortly after dinner we parted;
he to execute his commissions, and I to embark in the mail
stage.

In the time prefixed I returned. I arrived early in the
morning, and prepared to depart again at noon. Meanwhile,
I called at Keysler's. This is an old acquaintance of
Watson's and mine; and, in the course of talk, he expressed
some surprise that Watson had so precipitately deserted
his house. I stated the necessity there was for Watson's
immediate departure southward, and added, that no doubt
my brother had explained this necessity.

Why, said Keysler, it is true, Captain Watson mentioned
his intention of leaving town early next day; but then he
gave me reason to expect that he would sup and lodge with
me that night, whereas he has not made his appearance
since. Besides, his trunk was brought to my house. This,
no doubt, he intended to carry home with him, but here it
remains still. It is not likely that in the hurry of departure
his baggage was forgotten. Hence, I inferred that he was
still in town, and have been puzzling myself these three
days with conjectures, as to what is become of him. What
surprises me more is, that, on inquiring among the few
friends which he has in this city, I find them as ignorant of

[figure description] Page 022.[end figure description]

his motions as myself. I have not, indeed, been wholly
without apprehensions that some accident or other has befallen
him.

I was not a little alarmed by this intimation. I went myself,
agreeably to Keysler's directions, to Watson's friends,
and made anxious inquiries, but none of them had seen my
brother since his arrival. I endeavored to recollect the
commissions which he designed to execute, and, if possible,
to trace him to the spot where he last appeared. He had
several packets to deliver, one of which was addressed to
Walter Thetford. Him, after some inquiry, I found out,
but unluckily he chanced to be in the country. I found, by
questioning a clerk, who transacted his business in his absence,
that a person, who answered the minute description
which I gave of Watson, had been there on the day on
which I parted with him, and had left papers relative to the
capture of one of Thetford's vessels by the English. This
was the sum of the information he was able to afford me.

I then applied to three merchants for whom my brother
had letters. They all acknowledged the receipt of these
letters, but they were delivered through the medium of the
post-office.

I was extremely anxious to reach home. Urgent engagements
compelled me to go on without delay. I had
already exhausted all the means of inquiry within my reach,
and was obliged to acquiesce in the belief, that Watson had
proceeded homeward at the time appointed, and left, by
forgetfulness or accident, his trunk behind him. On examining
the books kept at the stage offices, his name no where
appeared, and no conveyance by water had occurred during
the last week. Still the only conjecture I could form, was
that he had gone homeward.

Arriving at Baltimore, I found that Watson had not yet
made his appearance. His wife produced a letter, which,
by the post mark, appeared to have been put into the office
at Philadelphia, on the morning after our arrival, and on
which he had designed to commence his journey. This
letter had been written by my brother, in my presence, but
I had dissuaded him from sending it, since the same coach
that should bear the letter, was likewise to carry himself. I
had seen him put it unwafered in his pocket-book, but this

[figure description] Page 023.[end figure description]

letter, unaltered in any part, and containing money which he
had at first intended to enclose in it, was now conveyed to
his wife's hand. In this letter he mentioned his design of
setting out for Baltimore, on the twenty-first, yet, on that
day the letter itself had been put into the office.

We hoped that a short time would clear up this mystery,
and bring the fugitive home, but from that day till the present,
no atom of intelligence has been received concerning him.
The yellow fever, which quickly followed, in this city, and
my own engagements, have hindered me, till now, from
coming hither and resuming the search.

My brother was one of the most excellent of men. His
wife loved him to distraction, and, together with his children,
depended for subsistence upon his efforts. You will not,
therefore, be surprised that his disappearance excited, in us,
the deepest consternation and distress; but I have other, and
peculiar reasons for wishing to know his fate. I gave him
several bills of exchange on merchants of Baltimore, which
I had received in payment of my cargo, in order that they
might, as soon as possible, be presented and accepted.
These have disappeared with the bearer. There is likewise
another circumstance that makes his existence of no small
value.

There is an English family, who formerly resided in
Jamaica, and possessed an estate of great value, but who,
for some years, have lived in the neighborhood of Baltimore.
The head of this family died a year ago, and left a widow
and three daughters. The lady thought it eligible to sell
her husband's property in Jamaica, the island becoming
hourly more exposed to the chances of war and revolution,
and transfer it to the United States, where she purposes
henceforth to reside. Watson had been her husband's
friend, and his probity and disinterestedness being well
known, she entrusted him with legal powers to sell this estate.
This commission was punctually performed, and the purchase
money was received. In order to confer on it the
utmost possible security, he rolled up four bills of exchange,
drawn upon opulent merchants of London, in a thin sheet of
lead, and depositing this roll in a leathern girdle, fastened it
round his waist, and under his clothes; a second set he gave
to me, and a third he despatched to Mr. Keysler, by a vessel

[figure description] Page 024.[end figure description]

which sailed a few days before him. On our arrival in this
city, we found that Keysler had received those transmitted
to him, and which he had been charged to keep till our
arrival. They were now produced, and, together with those
which I had carried, were delivered to Watson. By him
they were joined to those in the girdle, which he still wore,
conceiving this method of conveyance to be safer than any
other, and, at the same time, imagining it needless, in so
short a journey as remained to be performed, to resort to
other expedients.

The sum which he thus bore about him, was no less than
ten thousand pounds sterling. It constituted the whole patrimony
of a worthy and excellent family, and the loss of it
reduces them to beggary. It is gone with Watson, and
whither Watson has gone, it is impossible even to guess.

You may now easily conceive, Sir, the dreadful disasters
which may be connected with this man's fate, and with what
immeasurable anxiety his family and friends have regarded
his disappearance. That he is alive, can scarcely be believed,
for in what situation could he be placed in which he
would not be able and willing to communicate some tidings
of his fate to his family?

Our grief has been unspeakably aggravated by the suspicions
which Mrs. Maurice and her friends have allowed
themselves to admit. They do not scruple to insimuate,
that Watson, tempted by so great a prize, has secretly embarked
for England, in order to obtain payment for these
bills, and retain the money for his own use.

No man was more impatient of poverty than Watson,
but no man's honesty was more inflexible. He murmured
at the destiny that compelled him to sacrifice his ease, and
risk his life upon the ocean in order to procure the means
of subsistence; and all the property which he had spent the
best part of his life in collecting, had just been ravished
away from him by the English; but if he had yielded to
this temptation at any time, it would have been on receiving
these bills at Jamaica. Instead of coming hither, it would
have been infinitely more easy and convenient to have embarked
directly for London; but none, who thoroughly knew
him, can, for a moment, harbor a suspicion of his truth.

If he be dead, and if the bills are not to be recovered,

[figure description] Page 025.[end figure description]

yet, to ascertain this, will, at least, serve to vindicate his
character. As long as his fate is unknown, his fame will be
loaded with the most flagrant imputations, and if these bills
be ever paid in London, these imputations will appear to be
justified. If he has been robbed, the robber will make haste
to secure the payment, and the Maurices may not unreasonably
conclude that the robber was Watson himself. Many
other particulars were added by the stranger, to show the
extent of the evils flowing from the death of his brother, and
the loss of the papers which he carried with him.

I was greatly at a loss, continued Wortley, what directions
or advice to afford this man. Keysler, as you know, died
early of the pestilence; but Keysler was the only resident
in this city with whom Williams had any acquaintance. On
mentioning the propriety of preventing the sale of these bills
in America, by some public notice, he told me that this
caution had been early taken; and I now remembered seeing
the advertisement, in which the bills had been represented
as having been lost or stolen in this city, and a reward
of a thousand dollars was offered to any one who should
restore them. This caution had been published in September,
in all the trading towns from Portsmouth to Savannah,
but had produced no satisfaction.

I accompanied Williams to the mayor's office, in hopes
of finding in the records of his proceedings, during the last
six months, some traces of Watson, but neither these records
nor the memory of the magistrate, afforded us any satisfaction.
Watson's friends had drawn up, likewise, a description
of the person and dress of the fugitive, an account of
the incidents attending his disappearance, and of the papers
which he had in his possession, with the manner in which
these papers had been secured. These had been already
published in the Southern newspapers, and have been just
reprinted in our own. As the former notice had availed
nothing, this second expedient was thought necessary to be
employed.

After some reflection, it occurred to me that it might be
proper to renew the attempt which Williams had made to
trace the footsteps of his friend to the moment of his final
disappearance. He had pursued Watson to Thetford's, but

[figure description] Page 026.[end figure description]

Thetford himself had not been seen, and he had been contented
with the vague information of his clerk. Thetford
and his family, including his clerk, had perished, and it
seemed as if this source of information was dried up. It was
possible, however, that old Thetford might have some knowledge
of his nephew's transactions, by which some light might
chance to be thrown upon this obscurity. I therefore called
on him, but found him utterly unable to afford me the light
that I wished. My mention of the packet which Watson had
brought to Thetford, containing documents respecting the
capture of a certain ship, reminded him of the injuries
which he had received from Welbeck, and excited him to
renew his menaces and imputations on that wretch. Having
somewhat exhausted this rhetoric, he proceeded to tell me
what connexion there was between the remembrance of his
injuries and the capture of this vessel.

This vessel and its cargo were, in fact, the property of
Welbeck. They had been sent to a good market and had
been secured by an adequate insurance. The value of this
ship and cargo, and the validity of the policy he had taken
care to ascertain by means of his two nephews, one of whom
had gone out supercargo. This had formed his inducement
to lend his three notes to Welbeck, in exchange for three
other notes, the whole amount of which included the equitable
interest of five per cent. per month on his own loan. For
the payment of these notes, he by no means relied, as the
world foolishly imagined, on the seeming opulence and secret
funds of Welbeck. These were illusions too gross to
have any influence on him. He was too old a bird to be
decoyed into the net by such chaff. No; his nephew, the
supercargo, would of course receive the produce of the
voyage, and so much of this produce as would pay his debt.
He had procured the owner's authority to intercept its passage
from the pocket of his nephew to that of Welbeck. In
case of loss, he had obtained a similar security upon the policy.
Jamieson's proceedings had been the same with his
own, and no affair in which he had ever engaged, had appeared
to be more free from hazard than this. Their calculations,
however, though plausible, were defeated. The
ship was taken and condemned, for a cause which rendered
the insurance ineffectual.

[figure description] Page 027.[end figure description]

I bestowed no time in reflecting on this tissue of extortions
and frauds, and on that course of events which so often
disconcerts the stratagems of cunning. The names of
Welbeck and Watson were thus associated together, and
filled my thoughts with restlessness and suspicion. Welbeck
was capable of any wickedness. It was possible an
interview had happened between these men, and that the fugitive
had been some way instrumental in Watson's fate.
These thoughts were mentioned to Williams, whom the name
of Welbeck threw into the utmost perturbation. On finding
that one of this name had dwelt in this city, and, that he
had proved a villain, he instantly admitted the most dreary
forebodings.

I have heard, said Williams, the history of this Welbeck
a score of times from my brother. There formerly subsisted
a very intimate connexion between them. My brother
had conferred upon one whom he thought honest, innumerable
benefits, but all his benefits had been repaid by
the blackest treachery. Welbeck's character and guilt had
often been made the subject of talk between us, but, on
these occasions, my brother's placid and patient temper forsook
him. His grief for the calamities which had sprung
from this man, and his desire of revenge, burst all bounds,
and transported him to a pitch of temporary frenzy. I
often inquired in what manner he intended to act, if a meeting
should take place between them. He answered, that
doubtless he should act like a maniac, in defiance of his sober
principles, and of the duty which he owed his family.

What, said I, would you stab or pistol him?

No! I was not born for an assassin. I would upbraid
him in such terms as the furious moment might suggest, and
then challenge him to a meeting, from which either he or I
should not part with life. I would allow time for him to
make his peace with Heaven, and for me to blast his reputation
upon earth, and to make such provision for my possible
death, as duty and discretion would prescribe.

Now, nothing is more probable than that Welbeck and
my brother have met. Thetford would of course mention
his name and interest in the captured ship, and hence the
residence of this detested being in this city, would be made

[figure description] Page 028.[end figure description]

known. Their meeting could not take place without some
dreadful consequence. I am fearful that to that meeting
we must impute the disappearance of my brother.